This is one of those occasions
when I am essentially entering a personal diary entry rather than a review. The reason
is simple enough, and is intended as no disrespect to the artists, quite the contrary: I was not well, and devoted far too much of my attention
to stifling a cough to be able to write properly on the performances. It was,
as one might have expected, a splendid concert. Stemme was her wonderful self:
a little steely, though a good way short of Nilsson, less impeccable with her
diction than I might have expected, but more than compensating by the meaning
she imparted with the marriage of words and text. We heard more than a little
Brünnhilde: not only in the Wesendonck-Lieder,
but also on occasion in Brahms. Barenboim was at his best as a collaborative
artist: responsive, in no sense domineering, but very much an equal partner.
How he must know and feel the kinship with Tristan!
I found the Nadia Boulanger songs pleasant, if somewhat generic: a nice
reminder of Barenboim’s association with her. Lili Boulanger’s songs, on the
other hand, announced the ‘real thing’ from the outset, and the performances
sounded all the more committed; there was no doubting the compositional voice,
post-Debussyan, to be sure, and with connections one might draw, but never to
be reduced to them. (I must hear these songs again, soon!) I am no fan of Sibelius’s
symphonies, but am always happy enough to hear his songs, and there was
certainly much to be gained in hearing them from Stemme. She sang, I think,
another as her first encore; I do not know which. The second, more surprising,
was Weill’s ‘My ship has sails’ from Lady
in the Dark. More later in the week, when I hope to be recovered! (Alas, a
Wien Modern concert tonight had to fall by the wayside this evening.)